The Brontë Project 2021 discussion

Let's discuss the second half of The Professor and the book as a whole!

Short and sweet. Some themes are the same as in Villette but the tone is much lighter.
CB is very critical of Catholicism and the girl students. They’re all awful, with no redeeming qualities.

I found the book a lot more elegant than Villette! Perhaps I have found gotten used to the writing style but I found the resolution better and a lot of the themes were explored in-depth and yet with more succinctly than in Villette.
I like how themes like oppressive master-servant relationships that Villette had more of and felt rather unresolved became a partnership of love and equality between Frances and William. This idea of independence and of how indebtedness can also become a kind of dependence emotionally and mentally was also explored rather nicely in William's relationships and was finally resolved when he finally found in Vandenhuten a benefactor that was so benign that he did not feel the burden of being scorned by his debtor.
What I found rather interesting was why CB chose to write from the perspective of a male protagonist. Quite unlike most of her other novels where the work is primarily written in the female voice, I was expecting a difference in perhaps a male vs female voice? Didn't detect much of it in the novel.

I didn't enjoy 'The Professor' as much as I enjoyed 'Villette'.
It explores many similar themes to 'Villette', only from the male perspective. It's shorter, perhaps a bit lighter and less ambiguous, yet weaker in execution and less appealing to me.
First of all, I had no interest in the main character, William Crimsworth, who came off as self-righteous and condescending and I just didn't care much what happened to him. In addition to that, he simply had to make a comment about the physical appearance and intelligence (more than often the lack of it) of every single female character mentioned in the book.
Bronte explored some of the same themes in 'Villette', but they were not as in-your-face as in this one. Some of the supporting characters seemed underdeveloped, namely Monsieur Pelet and Mademoiselle Pelet. In short, they were portrayed as bad and deceiving people because aren't all Belgians, French and catholics deceiving and bad? In short, England - good, Belgium - bad, protestantism - good, catholicisim - bad, English women - smart and lively, Belgian and every other foreign woman - stupid and insipid.
However, I did enjoy the second part of the book a bit more, after we were introduced to the character of Frances Henri. I quite enjoyed how she stood up for herself and her right to work and make her own money.
Overall, 'The Professor' had some really nice moments, but I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads, although it's more like 2.5 because of the second part of the book. I don't think it's a bad book and surely many people will enjoy it more than I did, but in my mind it was just a lesser version of 'Villette'.

I am surprised that I liked and finished this book. I have to say that I did not find William to have many redeeming qualities. He was arrogant, prejudiced, and condescending. That being said, I did wish him to be happy with Frances.

I was on the edge of my seat with wondering if Frances would accept William or not. I knew that this would most likely be a happy ending, as Jane was, but then I remembered Villette and realized that maybe it wouldn't be so happy. I was very happy that they were able to have a happy life together, to achieve their dreams.

I did feel that the novel wrapped up almost too quickly. Bronte does make sure to tie up loose ends about the various characters, and everyone who should have struggled or been punished was. I felt, though, that I wasn't sure about the scenes included. Why did we need to see the scene about the dog? Was it to understand Victor or as a final brushstroke on William's character? And what about his mother's painting? He received it, then put it away and I don't believe it was mentioned again. I would think, as a symbol, Bronte would have brought it back at the end, made mention of it in some way.

All in all, I did enjoy this little book. It is not her best, but it is a good study to see the techniques she was working with that would show in her later work.

It definitely appears to be a mixed bag reading the reviews so far of the book.

I did really enjoy the book overall although it is inevitable it is compared extensively to Villette. My perspective was that I didn't find the story and characters quite as nuanced as Villette. However, Villette was written years after The Professor during which time Charlotte had developed and matured as a writer.

It was a short read but I feel it flowed well. I enjoyed the second half of the book more once Mlle Henri became a more prominent character. I loved her introduction at the start as the quiet lacemaker with other characters being more front and centre with the reader only suspecting the character would rise in importance later in the novel.

I agree with some of the other reviewers' comments. There is the strange scene with the dog at the end which seemed to be Charlotte feeling she had not said all she wished to about William's character by the end of the novel. There are also the religious and national dichotomies which must be read in the context of the time.

I can also see why perhaps the story was not felt to be strong enough at the time to merit publication. But we have Arthur Bell Nichols to thank for the decision to publish the work posthumously.

Overall, I enjoyed this book although, for me, not the best of Charlotte's works.

I found The Professor a much more enjoyable read than Villette. The storyline is similar but The Professor is shorter and from a male perspective.

From previous comments I see that not everyone liked William but I found him to be a more informative narrator than Lucy and also more positive. They had both dropped several levels in society due to their parents early deaths and both seemed to have accepted their station in life and were prepared to work hard. However, Lucy seemed determined to punish herself for this situation and not allow herself to have any pleasure or to plan much of a future whereas William appeared more determined to better himself.

It definitely wasn’t as well developed as Villette but it didn’t take nearly so long to read and I was always happy to pick it up again.